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Federal government accused of ‘racially discriminating’ against First Nations children

OTTAWA—Indigenous leaders are slamming the government for “racial discrimination” and a lack of funding that forces too many children on reserves to be taken from their families into foster care.

Clutching a plush teddy bear at a Thursday morning press conference, indigenous children’s advocate Cindy Blackstock called on the Liberal government in Ottawa to show the same leadership and urgency for indigenous kids that it has shown in bringing Syrian refugees to Canada.

First Nations children's advocate Cindy Blackstock speaks at a press conference with Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde in Ottawa on Thursday. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

“This is a country that stands up for human rights around the world and yet we are racially discriminating against little kids,” she said.

“I can’t tell you how tired I am of seeing the government apologize to successive generations of First Nations children for problems they could have prevented,” she said. “The time for saying ‘I’m sorry’ and the time for sending condolences has got to be over.”

Speaking later outside the House of Commons, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett acknowledged the problem. She said kids are “absolutely” being taken from their homes because of poverty and a lack of local services. While describing a disproportionate level of indigenous kids in foster care, she could not give an exact number because the government doesn’t track that data.

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“The system is broken and we have to reform it,” she said. That includes a push to give each provincial and local agency working in indigenous communities $25,000 to gather foster care statistics and determine where money is needed, she said.

“We are exerting every ounce of political muscle on this.”

The indigenous leaders — including Blackstock, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde and Ontario Sen. Kim Pate — were marking the 10th anniversary of a human rights tribunal case that led to a landmark decision last year. The tribunal concluded that the federal government discriminated against thousands of indigenous kids for failing to provide adequate funding for services.

In response to the human rights ruling, Ottawa set aside $382 million last summer to pay for health care under Jordan’s Principle. Named for a little boy who died in 2005, the principle is meant to guarantee that indigenous youth with pressing health problems receive care quickly — whether Ottawa or a province pays for it can be figured out later.

The funding is part of a wider commitment to spend $1 billion on indigenous health and children’s services over five years.

Blackstock, Bellegarde and Pate, however, argued the government is still to failing to address disparities between the quality of health and child welfare available to kids on reserves — which are funded by Ottawa — and services for children in the provincial systems.

They also said the rollout of this new money is too slow.

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“The fact that this is not seen as an emergency is a travesty in this country,” said Pate.

Health Minister Jane Philpott said the government is making progress, especially when it comes to releasing more money for urgent-need cases that apply under Jordan’s Principle.

“We’ve got a lot more work to do, but we’re determined to make sure there is no child who will go without the care that they need,” she said.

As of early February, Health Canada had allocated $40 million of this new money for 3,200 indigenous children in need of urgent care, said Sony Perron, senior assistant deputy minister with the department’s First Nations and Inuit Health Branch.

New Democrat MP Romeo Saganash accused the government of dragging its feet. Pointing to the creation Wednesday of a ministerial panel to review laws and policies affecting indigenous people, more than a year into the Liberal mandate, Saganash questioned the government’s will to act rather than undergo more consultations.

“Most files for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people are urgent, because they’ve been neglected for so long,” he said. “(The government) promised a lot of things to indigenous people in this country, and they failed them.”

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